I'd investigate the Audigy if I were you - am pretty sure it will emulate a SB16 for DOS games and will allow you to load sound fonts for MIDI - there are some brilliant .SF2 fonts around. The S2 is a fine option but you'll need a card with a wave table header - your Vortex card probs has one but it's only a Vortex 1 - you might as well have a Vortex 2 card if you're going down that path.

Hey badmojo,

Thanks for the reply. I actually just installed the Audigy card. The default midi on that card is TERRIBLE 🤣. The driver install included a program called Soundfount Bank Manager, but I'm not too sure how to use it. Would you happen to know a good source of info for this?

The Vortex card is my 2nd choice. If I can't figure this soundfont thing out, The vortex card is going in, because overall the Audigy seems a bit buggy to me. Some pops and skips here and there. I used the driver cd Iso found on this site. If you happen to know a better driver and it's location that would be awesome. 😉

Can anyone shine some light on this? I'm looking for that old Awe64 sound, you know deep, rich and brassy. I want to get back into the old Lucas arts/ Sierra games, and want that MIDI music to sound amazing. Any suggestions that won't break the bank?

- Do I stick with my Audigy 2ZS and use soundfonts (and how is that done?).
- Do i go with my Vortex 1 card, and buy the Dreamblaster S2. (Are there any other Wabetable cards worth looking into?)
- Or just by a cheap Awe64 value ISA (which i have - 440bx system here).

Hope to hear from someone soon! 😉

Honestly, if you're looking to use the Dreamblaster S2/X2, I'd combine it with an ESS Audiodrive (1868 or 1869 chipset) or a Yamaha Audician32, or maybe a Soundblaster 16 (if you can find one of the ones that doesn't have noise or hanging notes issues). PCI sound cards get weird for DOS games. Your board can probably make it work, and the Vortex series are well-known for being some of the few PCI sound cards that work well with DOS, but ISA cards are much less troublesome.

The Audigy2 ZS will probably only work well in a Win98 DOS window, not when booted into real-mode DOS. I like that card for Win2000 or later, or Linux, but in DOS it's iffy. The Vortex is probably fine, but I'm always nervous about PCI sound cards and DOS games - you can expect to have to jump through hoops. The AWE64 Value sounds pretty good if you can use the AWE synth, but there's no wavetable header. You could still use a Dreamblaster as an external MIDI device if you wanted, though - Serdaco has a case that will do that for you. However, in games that can only use FM synth, the AWE64's CQM just plain doesn't sound as good as a real OPL3 or an Audiodrive. That's why I recommend an ESS or Yamaha with the Dreamblaster. To boot, Audiodrive cards are cheap and easy to find.

Jade thanks for the reply. I've never heard of ESS, but Yamaha Audician I've heard thrown around a few times.

I actually plan on playing DOS games through Windows 98, not real-mode DOS. Does this change your answer a bit?

I want to play this way so I don't have to fiddle with things. Will running games through Win98 DOS window affect the sound quality in any way?

So far I'm not really digging the Audigy 2 ZS. The drivers installed WAAYYYY too many programs, and it just seems buggy to me.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Vortex card with a Daughterboard, Yamaha Audician 32 w/DB, or getting an AWE64 Value.

what do you think?

The Audician32 is pretty nice. I've got one in one of my 486 boxen, and an Audiodrive in the other - they're about equally good, in the general case.

Playing through a Win98 DOS window won't hurt anything, quality-wise, if anything it'll save some hassle with sound. The catch is that some games don't like running that way, but if you know you don't have any in that category, then go nuts! That will paper over any remaining sticky problems with the Vortex1 card, too. Those apparently work well enough in DOS, though, but I've never actually tried.

However, if it were me, I'd vote for the Audician32 with Dreamblaster. I like the AWE64, but its FM sounds a little flat (https://youtu.be/t9IRWOzs0T0?t=199) and it doesn't have a wavetable header so if you want a general MIDI option in addition to the AWE synth, you'd need an external one. The AWE synth is pretty good, though, and has a GM emulation mode so that you can use games that can speak GM with it.

^ with the caveat that Audician 32's chipset doesn't like playing some of the ADPCM format sounds in Duke Nukem 2.